‘Rivers of London: Night Witch’ by Ben Aaronovitch

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Genres: Graphic Novel, Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Police Procedural, Fantasy, Peter Grant, Rivers of London

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Previous books in the series/by the author reviewed: Midnight Riot, Moon over SoHo, Broken Homes, Foxglove Summer, The Hanging Tree, Whispers Under Ground, Lies Sleeping, Body Work

Rating: Highly Recommended if you want to read a Police Procedural UF Graphic Novel

Here’s the TL;DR for my review (SPOILERS!):

• Pros
  • Fun police procedural story
  • Engaging Plot
  • Good use of Magic
  • Good Characterization
• Mixed
• Cons
  • No Guleed. Guleed is always fun to have around.

I’m keeping this review relatively spoiler-free because I liked it a bit and I think you should read it.

When a little girl is stolen from the home of her Russian Oligarch family, her mother concludes that a Leshy (aka a Green Man, or a Forest Creature) stole her. They are in England when this happens, but these Russians don’t go to the police for help. Instead they turn to Varvara Sidarovna, the Russian Night Witch from ‘Broken Homes,’ a recurring villain in the series. The only problem is that Varvara is in English prison. Thus begins a break-out attempt, one which Varv most certainly doesn’t want to be a part of.

Plot: I liked the plot. It reminded me of ‘Foxglove Summer,’ my favorite book in the series. I particularly liked how the plot wound up revolving around such mundane crimes as kidnapping and ransom and not some fantastical motivation which involves magic. I love Urban Fantasy plots which are more mundane than they are fantastic.

Characters: Same complaint from ‘Body Work’ that Peter isn’t as funny or well-characterized here as he was in the books. Also same complements that Molly and Toby are better characterized here than in the books. I do have to say that Nightingale got good characterization in this graphic novel. Varvara was a FANTASTIC character here, when she never was one in the books.

Pacing: I never got bored, and the creators did a good job of constantly upping the stakes.

Constructive criticism: The creators need to flesh out Peter’s humor. In the books his narrative voice has an innate comedy about it which just doesn’t come through the Graphic Novel.

Net total, I liked this a lot. Check this out. The creators of this showed a mastery of the artform.